TEHRAN – On Tuesday, a host of Iranian cultural heritage devotees and experts came together at a Tehran meeting to celebrate the International Day for Monuments and Sites (IDMS), which explores “Heritage Changes” as its theme this year.

The attendees exchanged views on ways to safeguard human heritage and recognize efforts made by various organizations to preserve heritage around the world.

In particular, they discussed the country’s noble cultural heritage that has had a fundamental impact on the world through art, architecture, poetry, science and technology, medicine, philosophy, and engineering.

Iran’s archaeological legacy is extended from the Mediterranean Sea to India and ranges across four millennia from the Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC) to the glorious age of classical Islam and the magnificent medieval cities of Isfahan and Shiraz that thrived in the 9th-12th centuries CE, and beyond.

Moreover, the direct legacy of the ancient Iranians can be traced across West Asia, the Caucasus and Turkey, the Arabian Peninsula and Egypt and Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan.

For instance, in the 6th century BC, Iran was home to the first world empire. The Achaemenids ruled a multicultural superpower that stretched to Egypt and Asia Minor in the west, and India and Pakistan in the east. They were the power by which all other ancient empires measured themselves. Their cultural homeland was in the Fars province of modern Iran. The word Persian is the name for the Iranian people based on the home region of the Achaemenids – Pars.

World Heritage Day, also known as the International Day for Monuments and Sites, is an annual observance held on April 18th to raise awareness about the importance of cultural heritage and to celebrate the diversity of our shared human history.

The day was established by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) in 1982 during a seminar in Tunisia and was later approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 1983 at the 22nd session of the UNESCO Conference.

Each year, ICOMOS proposes a theme for activities to be organized by its members and partners - and anyone who wants to join in marking the day. A different theme is featured each year, and events and activities are organized around the world to promote the protection and preservation of cultural heritage.

The ICOMOS organization was established on the principles put down in the Venice Charter, also known as the 1964 International Charter on the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites.

This year, the IDMS is aimed to provide a timely opportunity to showcase strategies demonstrating the full potential of heritage research and practices which deliver climate-resilient pathways, while advocating for inclusive transitions to low-carbon futures. It is part of the ICOMOS Triennial Scientific Plan 2021-2024 and supports the 2020 ICOMOS resolution on People-centered Approaches to Cultural Heritage.

AFM